City event is the No. 1 place to talk city politics

Someone folded up and put away a lot of American civil, judicial and political history Thursday in Algonac.

Amanda Gougeon took a folding table and a couple of chairs to the free riverfront concert Thursday evening, aiming to collect signatures on her petitions to recall two Algonac City Council members — Irene Bird and Joe Nugent.

Someone — we are guessing it was a city official, although it could have been anyone who came to enjoy the free concert — called the St. Clair County Sheriff Department to have Gougeon and her group evicted from the park. We are surprised the responding deputies got involved, but they had Gougeon put her table away.

That is an affront to the U.S. and Michigan constitutions and to all who recognize that the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech are the foundation of all our rights. Fundamental to the First Amendment is the right to speak in public places about public matters — a concept that has been reinforced by too many judicial precedents to count.

There can be no doubt that the U.S. Constitution gives Gougeon absolute, unquestioned freedom to collect her petition signatures in the city’s riverfront park and every other public place in Algonac or elsewhere. Logic suggests she also has a right to her folding table — otherwise what would be the next claimed distraction, her clipboards, pens and pencils?

Algonac Mayor Eileen Tesch was at the concert. She told Times Herald reporter Jackie Smith she believes in Gougeon’s right to circulate her petitions. She also said the concert did not seem an appropriate time or place.

She could not be more wrong.

She also said, “Obviously, I’m not happy they bring their negativity to a positive, community event …”

With those words, Tesch summarizes the turmoil that has seethed through Algonac for more than a year since residents first learned of the proposed redevelopment of Algonac Elementary School into a church and community center.

Some of the controversy, certainly, is just old-fashioned fear of outsiders. But most of it came from officials who believed residents with questions or different opinions were being negative.

Disagreeing is not being negative. It is speaking. It is way past time for Algonac officials to start listening.